With investors complaining about Biden’s antitrust efforts, a lawyer with decades of experience explains why they’re so important
When it comes to the role that antitrust enforcement — or the lack thereof — has affected Silicon Valley’s development, there’s arguably no one with more firsthand experience than Gary Reback .
In a pair of interviews with The Examiner, Reback talked about the venture community’s antitrust complaints, how things have changed since he organized the anti-Microsoft coalition, and why he thinks Khan gets a bad rap. The interviews have been combined and edited for length and clarity. Industry data shows the vast majority of startups that have a successful exit now are acquired, compared to 30 years ago, when they would have gone public. Is it fair to think that’s why the venture community is so upset about antitrust enforcement possibly depressing deals? I’m not familiar with the data, but I’ll take you word for it. But, so what?
You might ask yourself, if we had the kind of antitrust enforcement we have now back during the Obama administration, at the time we first had good evidence on Google’s search manipulation, would we be in a situation now where investment could make public companies . And I think the answer is, yeah, a lot more.
You helped organize the opposition to Microsoft’s attempt to buy Intuit in the 90s, before the antitrust trial. Were there any VCs then saying, “Hey, this is our acquirer. Maybe we shouldn’t squash this deal?” The VC community generally supported me. They thought it was the right thing that the government stepped in and blocked the Intuit deal.
Particularly if it’s somebody else in your fund or a friend of yours and he stands to make a gazillion dollars on one particular deal, I think it’s difficult for you to say, “No, he shouldn’t be able to do that,” because, of course, you want your deals to go through.
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